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I am by no means a WDW expert but we took our 1st trip there 2 summers ago so I thought I'd share some of the things I would have changed about our trip. We are also frequent DL visitors.

1. We were there 5 full days (not counting travel days) and planned 1 day for each WDW park plus 1 day at Islands of Adventure for Harry Potter land. I do not feel like we had enough time at the WDW parks. I would have wanted 2 days for EPCOT and 2 days for Magic Kingdom. I felt fine with 1 day at Hollywood Studios and 1 day at AK.

2. We didn't get park hoppers because I didn't think we'd use them. And I'm glad we didn't. On the days we went to parks that close early (AK in particular) we just went to the pool. went to a sit down dinner and rested with our extra time. We needed those resting times especially with our toddler.

3. By our last day we were exhausted! We had saved Magic Kingdom for our last park and barely saw anything there cause we were so beat we decided to sleep in and didn't arrive til 1pm. We were thinking it wouldn't matter much since it was so similar to DL but I wish we had had more time to see everything there and experience all the differences.

4. We didn't do the water parks so I don't know anything about those.

When we got home and talked about it we decided that when we go back we're going for at least 7 full days (we loved Harry Potter and would want a day at that park as well!) so that we have 2 extra days at the Disney parks to catch the things we missed. This would have also helped with the break neck speed at which we were running through the parks. We had the BEST time and can't wait to go back but our biggest mistake was underestimating the sheer size of the parks there. I hope this helped at least a little bit. I'm excited for you. WDW is the best family vacation we've taken - nearly 2 years later we still talk about how much fun it was!

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You won't be able to do it all because there is a lot to do! haha. Always more to do for the next trip. With that in mind, I would say a week would be a great start. I know you said you haven't purchased a guide, but there are lots of great web site to help with planning a trip to WDW (something that is a must vs. a trip to DLR). I would recommend EasyWDW. The guy who runs it is super funny and offers a blog that is updated daily. He makes crowd calendars and suggestions for plannings trip.

Parkhopppers are definitely worth it. Especially if you spend one morning at one park, take a break, and then enjoy another park for the evening. It is also helpful to be able to park hop when choosing your dining etc. (something that is much more of a big deal at WDW than DLR. Advanced reservations are a must for sit down meals.) The water parks are awesome. March is a perfect time of years (weather wise) to enjoy the parks, and that certainly include Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

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I would recommend EasyWDW. The guy who runs it is super funny and offers a blog that is updated daily. He makes crowd calendars and suggestions for plannings trip.

Parkhopppers are definitely worth it. Especially if you spend one morning at one park, take a break, and then enjoy another park for the evening. It is also helpful to be able to park hop when choosing your dining etc. (something that is much more of a big deal at WDW than DLR. Advanced reservations are a must for sit down meals.) The water parks are awesome. March is a perfect time of years (weather wise) to enjoy the parks, and that certainly include Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.

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He will only be in the conference for 5 days and even those aren't full days so the plan is he can join us in the parks when his day is done!

It’s a long and expensive flight from the west coast so our thoughts are to make this a big trip and stay and do as much as we can since we probably won’t be doing this again for a very very LONG time!

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I'll give you a rough break down of our trip last year. Wife, daughter #1 17, daughter #2 11, son 5, and me.

Arrived Orlando after 20 some hours on the road and checked in at the hotel. We were sitting on the train watching the tail end of the parade in MK at 3PM 24 hours to the minute from when we left home. I digress. Shut the park down at midnight and felt we had seen and done what we wanted. PEOPLE MOVER!!!! DL veterans so it was a special treat to ride it. So let's say 1/2 day MK.

Epcot 2 days-World Showcase one day and came back a couple days later to do the front side of the park. If you really want to dig in this could be a 3 dayer no problem.

AK-1/2 day. Maybe a full day. 1/2 day and park hop would probably be best.

DHS 1 day. By the time we sat down for Fantasmic we had only missed the Rockin' Roller Coaster.

It was the iconic family vacation we had always wanted. A week more or less at Disney World. I can't tell you the number of times I teared up. So there you go. YMMV

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I find it interesting how many different ways the parks at Disney World can be divided up in a person's schedule. Everyone has different likes, and dislikes, and the scheduling for the parks sure proves this point.

I can never get enough of either Magic Kingdom and Epcot, and DHS and Animal Kingdom are growing on me. So if I had a 7 day vacation, no parkhopping. I'd have to start and end my vacation at Magic Kingdom, and spend at least one day at both DHS and Animal Kingdom. I'd most likely dedicate two days to Epcot, so that leaves me with one day where I could go parkless, and just relax.

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As for which park you need to spend more time at, that's really your own personal preference and you won't know that until you visit the parks.

For example, I know a LOT of people don't care for EPCOT. But for us, more often than not, we would gravitate over there for the evening, even if it was just for dinner, a walk around WS, etc.

On our last trip that was 10 days, we ended up at EPCOT 6 of the days at one time or another.

Typically what we'd do is we would get up early and visit whatever park has EMH (so for example DHS). Spend the morning in the park, have lunch at one of the sit-down restaurants (so for example, Sci Fi Drive In). Then after lunch we'd typically leave and go back to the hotel. Take a nap, a swim, just relax, whatever.

Then in the evening, because the park that has morning EMH ALWAYS get's busy, we'd park-hop to another park (again, mostly EPCOT).

I would suggest that if DAK has night-EMH while you are there, take advantage. The park is beautiful at night.

It did help that we had a rental car, I absolutely HATE the bus system so we always rent a car.

But in the end, you have to find whatever works best for you and your family. And with each subsequent trip you'll learn a bit more.

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My trip from last month....D-land regular who hadn't been to Florida since the early 90s..I was on business so some days I didn't have all day for theme parks.

DAY 1
Epcot - morning and afternoon

DAY 2
Magic Kingdom - all day

DAY 3
Epcot late afternoon and night, saw Illuminations

DAY 4
Animal Kingdom (morning)
Hollywood Studios (night)

DAY 5
Magic Kingdom

I did pretty much everything I wanted to do but didn't get to see any hotels besides my own and didn't get to do a lot of repeats. Also did not see all the shows or waterparks. Sometime around 7 days seems to be the norm. However - I'm going to book my return for next year to do everything I didn't get to do and ride Tower of Terror over and over!